Children learn by imitating the adults in their lives, like their parents, family members, teachers, and caregivers. Like so many other young boys, my first job was cutting grass starting at the age of 12, toting my dad’s lawn mower, trimmer and gas cans up and down my street. I was thrilled to make $20 per yard.
At a young age, the job taught me a tremendous amount about responsibility and work ethics, as well as critical basic business skills that I use to help lead a 3PL today. Some of these skills include developing relationships with new clients using a Quickbooks invoicing system and, when I had to buy a new riding mower, the value of depreciating an asset over multiple seasons.
While some of these fundamental life skills will always remain relevant in the business world, the ever-growing e-commerce industry means the specific business skills I teach my children will be drastically different than the skills I was taught as a young lad. In order to be successful in ecommerce, children need to first understand how money works, like how to make it, save it, spend it and allocate it wisely. This education should start early and at home, and then continue through elementary and middle school – and all the way up through college.
Our future lies in the bright, inquisitive minds of our youth. All we have to do is light that entrepreneurial spark in them, send them down the right path, and watch them grow into the successful e-commerce business people of tomorrow.
TL;DR:
Building future entrepreneurs
Teaching business skills to children requires starting with basic money concepts before advancing to e-commerce.
Educational resources include websites, games, apps, videos, and coding tools designed specifically for young learners.
Modern ecommerce skills include coding, graphics design, and digital marketing fundamentals.
Learning through play with specialized toys and games helps make business concepts engaging for children.
Ecommerce Education Websites That Inspire and Ignite Interest in Our Youth
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There are a number of websites centered around ecommerce, online business and becoming an entrepreneur for children and teens of all levels and ages. In addition, many of them offer lesson plans and other teaching resources for parents and teachers, too. And since most children learn by doing, many of these resources offer quizzes, flashcards, worksheets and activities to keep their interest going:
Quizlet: Offers worksheets, tests, flashcards and games on a number of subjects including e-commerce concepts and terminology for students, parents and teachers.
Lesson Planet: Site provides online educational resources for teachers curated by ratings, grade, subject and common core or state standards. They offer resources, printable, unit lessons and apps for teaching many subjects, but have several lessons centered on e-commerce, including Dot-Commerce, Internet Shopping Business Idea and Intro to Electronic Commerce.
Bizkids: Based on the kid’s show, they call it “The place where kids teach kids about money and business,” and the site is extensive, offering many resources to help them grow into tomorrow’s entrepreneurs.
Bizworld: For almost 20 years, Bizworld has been encouraging young people to embrace the entrepreneurial spirit through their programs, bizworld, bizmovie and bizwiz.
TeachingKidsBusiness: Jeff Brown, social entrepreneur and author wanted to teach kids about business both as a parent and as a business person, so he developed the site to help kids, parents and teachers access tools, games, lessons and other resources to be future entrepreneurs.
Fun Games That Teach Serious Business
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Everyone loves to play games, and the best part is, they can teach us important lessons sans the boredom. These games may mean serious business, but they also deliver some serious fun, too:
Gravity: A game that teaches e-commerce vocabulary and concepts.
Bizkids Games: Games include Break the Bank, Bring Home the Bacon and Dollar a Glass.
Be Your Own Boss: Offered by PBS, this game lets kids pick a business they’d like to start and they use the game to learn how to make it thrive and succeed.
From Banking to Baking: Mobile Apps for Our Future Business People
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Children today are tech-savvy, which means they love apps just as much as adults do. Add a sprinkle of imagination and inspiration, and here are some apps that offer valuable lessons on managing, investing, saving and donating money. From virtual banks and bakeries to role-playing as an adventure capitalist or philanthropist with a love for animals, here are some of the best:
Bankaroo: An 11-year old girl designed “The Virtual Bank for Kids,” an app for teaching children ages five to 13 all about saving money towards a goal, even though it does not link to a real bank account. It has a section just for schools, tutorials on how to use the apps and a blog.
Savings Spree: A Parent’s Choice Gold Award winner, this app is for ages five and up. It teaches how to save money, as well as how to invest, donate and spend it. It is in a game show format consisting of six rounds, each teaching various financial concepts. The winner is the player at the end with the largest amount of savings.
Key Takeaway: In today’s digital world, teaching children e-commerce skills means going beyond traditional business concepts. By using interactive websites, games, apps, and coding tools, parents and educators can prepare youth for success in the ecommerce fulfillment marketplace of tomorrow.
In order to be successful in ecommerce, children need to first understand how money works; how to make it, save it, spend it and allocate it wisely. This education should start early and at home, and then continue through elementary and middle school – and all the way up through college.
Our future lies in the bright, inquisitive minds of our youth, and all we have to do is light that entrepreneurial spark in them, send them down the right path and watch them grow into the successful e-commerce business people of tomorrow.
